Quote :

" LONDON, England (CNN) -- British athletes selected for this year's Olympic Games in Beijing will be asked to sign a contract that forbids them from criticizing China's human rights record. British Olympic Association chief executive Clegg says the team must conform to an appropriate code of conduct. Graham Nathan, spokesman for the British Olympics Association (BOA), told CNN that "British athletes will have to sign a contract promising not to comment on any politically sensitive issues." He added that they won't go further than what is required by the International Olympic Committee charter which restricts demonstrations of political propaganda at an Olympic Games. Athletes who refuse to sign the agreement will not be allowed to travel to compete in the Games from August 8-24, according to a sunday newspaper report."

I wonder if other countries are doing the same thing, haven't heard of the US doing it yet.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SPORT/02/10/olympics.britain/index.html

2/10/2008 8:33:10 PM

We should boycott these games

2/10/2008 8:55:56 PM

2/10/2008 9:05:43 PM

China = issues

2/10/2008 9:32:49 PM

According to the Daily Mail, only a couple other countries have done this.

Quote :

"The BOA took the decision even though other countries – including the United States, Canada, Finland, and Australia – have pledged that their athletes would be free to speak about any issue concerning China. To date, only New Zealand and Belgium have banned their athletes from giving political opinions while competing at the Games. "

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=513362

2/10/2008 10:17:32 PM

Quote :

"haven't heard of the US doing it yet."

Our guys don't protest other countries....

2/10/2008 10:25:01 PM

Quote :

"We should boycott these games"

2/10/2008 10:48:24 PM

the hypocrites should boycott these games as soon as we boycott chinese products

2/10/2008 10:49:31 PM

Signing this is probably a good thing for the safety of the athletes, even if it is a pussy move in regards to free speech and foreign relations.

2/10/2008 10:57:51 PM

why is it a good move? you think china will do shit to any visitors? hell no. they will be on their best behavior

2/11/2008 12:48:56 AM

if i were an Olympic athlete I would want to go undercover and visit some of the poor rural places there.

I'm sure Beijing will be just chipper as ever.

2/11/2008 1:44:29 AM

Seems like the message is sent either way

1) Olympic athletes criticize China's human rights record.

2) Everyone is accepting the fact that China's human rights record is terrible, so they make them sign something promising that they won't talk about it.

I guess the key difference is what the average Joe in China would hear. The government might have some control over whether or not they get to hear about #2 but they probably don't have much control over whether they hear about #1.

But it's not like it's China that's asking them to sing the agreement. It's the British Olympic Association. Besides, it would be nice to keep politics out of the Olympics anyway.

2/11/2008 8:36:00 AM

^that never happens

2/11/2008 9:30:45 AM

the only athletes that will be speaking out----------------


are the ones who aren't going to win anything and thus have nothing to do in their spare time.

2/11/2008 4:40:04 PM

this is the Olympic games not the olympic human rights seminar. If you want to bitch and complain about China's human rights then you should have been a fucking hippie or politician instead of an athlete.


oh and

World Cup >>>>>>> Olympics.

2/11/2008 6:17:49 PM

2/11/2008 7:45:14 PM

A bunch of self-censoring idiots here and in the UK.

China isn't going to do shit because they don't want to embarrass themselves on the world stage. The whole purpose of the games are to show that they have arrived.

2/11/2008 8:08:24 PM

im gonna go with the side that thinks that china is gonna drop the ball big time on this

or

something horrible will happen

2/12/2008 1:23:13 AM

I was in China last summer,

This is how insane they are about the Olympic.

The city gov't of Beijing is paying to repaint all the building along the sides of roads.

And if you go to Beijing, you realize how big the city is and how much $$$ that is going to cost.

2/12/2008 10:36:22 AM

I hardly view the UK as self censoring.

Government maybe, but certainly not the press.

2/12/2008 10:57:41 AM

FUCK THE OLYMPICS

2/12/2008 12:29:40 PM

2/12/2008 1:08:55 PM